What is tone of voice? It is a definition of the style and nature of brand communication that helps create a recognizable brand identity, establish an emotional connection with the audience, and maintain consistency across communication channels. Tone of voice is a brand’s communication style and tone of voice that reflects its values and attitude towards the consumer. Tone of voice is developed to ensure that the brand sounds the same across all communication channels: social media, website, emails, and even in staff communication with customers. This helps the company to build a strong emotional connection with the audience.
The main types of brand voice
There is no universal tone of voice, nor are there ready-made templates. If you want to be unique and differentiate yourself from competitors, your product must have an individual voice. It’s important to develop a brand tone of voice that is recognizable, consistent, and able to attract and retain an audience.
Nielsen Norman Group offered a framework that will help create a tone of voice from scratch. This is a coordinate system in which a brand defines its place by four pairs of parameters:
Funny – serious Tone of Voice
Humor improves memorization and brings people together, but it’s not for everyone. In some areas, such as medicine, jokes may be inappropriate. It is important to focus on the target audience and analyze communications with the audience to know whether they will appreciate a funny tone. A serious tone gives status but loses in emotionality and sincerity. For example, Forbes uses a serious style, combining strict colors and minimalism in materials, which emphasizes the status of the publication.
Formal – casual Tone of Voice
The formal style allows you to maintain subordination in communicating with the audience, focusing on rationality rather than emotions. An example is the Nielsen Norman Group, which uses minimalism in design and formal appeals to users. The casual style brings communication closer to a normal conversation, helping to be on the same page with users. Monzo, for example, uses emojis to emphasize emotions while maintaining minimalism.
Respectful – bold Tone of Voice
Communicating with your audience using a respectful tone of voice helps to establish rapport, but it’s important not to come across as subservient. Microsoft demonstrates respect, calmness, and confidence at all points of interaction with users, including the careful selection of illustrations. The bold tone of voice allows you to stand out among serious competitors. Liquid Death Mountain Water uses a bold and daring approach that remains recognizable even in the context of advertising environmental projects, showcasing a provocative design and an unusual logo.
Enthusiastic – restrained Tone of Voice
Exciting brand voice appeals to feelings and emotions, creating an emotional connection with the audience. For example, Netflix uses exciting announcements, funny posts, situational captions, and calls-to-action to infect people with a love of stories.
Restrained tone, on the other hand, focuses on rationality and professionalism, when emotional engagement is not a priority for the brand. UBS, for example, takes a low-key approach to communicating with clients. Their messages are concise, with a minimum of emotion, which is emphasized in the design: simple fonts, muted colors, and minimalism in visual design.
Creating your own brand voice
An article by Nielsen Norman Group states that Tone of Voice influences users, in particular, their impression of friendliness and reliability. So how do you create a tone of voice that works in your favor?
Step 1. Define your target audience
It is the audience that determines how to communicate with them. If the product is intended for the elderly, jokes and boldness will be inappropriate in communication. The best way to research your audience is to conduct in-depth interviews to understand how they communicate, their needs, and values.
Step 2. Develop your brand positioning
Brand positioning is the impression a brand makes on consumers and how it differs from competitors. What is Tone of Voice in branding? It is a style of communication that shapes brand perception, helps to stand out from competitors, and expresses brand values. Answer the following questions: who are you, what is your brand about, what customer problems do you solve, and what values do you adhere to? This will help define the basic principles of communication.
Step 3. Think about the brand image
This step will help you visualize and humanize the brand. Create an image that looks like an existing character. For example, the character of G.Bar can be described as follows: it is an energetic, emotional, cheerful girl of about 25 years old who is always ready to help you choose the perfect hairstyle for a date and give you some advice.
Step 4. Create a guide for the brand voice
Write down the instructions for writing texts for the brand – a certain guideline. This will help you to comply with the communication principles you have outlined every time. The necessary elements for the Tone of Voice guideline include:
- your positioning
- Do’s and don’ts – words and terms you use and avoid
- the main messages
- Communication channels
- your slogans
When creating a guide, it is important to answer the following questions:
- How do you address the audience: “you” or “you’re”?
- How do you talk about yourself: “we” or “our team”?
- How do you write the brand name?
- How do you describe your product/service?
- How do you make a call to action: “subscribe” or “click here to get lost”?
To make it easier for you and your team to grasp this information, create sample texts with a well-developed Tone of Voice. Then implement it in your daily communication across all media platforms.
Conclusion
Tone of Voice (ToV) is the foundation of brand communications. A well-formed communication style makes a brand stand out from the competition and makes customers fall in love with it.
Don’t ignore creating a tone of voice for your product if you want to be convincing. Focus on your target audience and your own values, think about the deeper meanings of the brand, and look for individuality.
Be sure to study and be inspired by how successful brands speak. Develop observation skills: pay attention to how your favorite companies behave in different situations. Adopt the best features, adapting them to your communication style.
